KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Director General Javed Miandad has said that the PCB should seriously think about closing down the Women’s Wing if they cannot manage the affairs of women’s cricket in Pakistan.

Speaking to Dawn on Tuesday, the former captain said that there should be a proper system of running things in the Women’s Wing. ‘But I have no idea of what goes on there. Frankly I don’t even blame its Chairperson Shireen Javed for doing such a hopeless job. She is constantly begging the PCB for funds,’ said Miandad. ‘This is why I have been saying all along that there should be an independent board for running the affairs of women’s cricket in Pakistan. They should have their own budget, their own sponsors rather than looking at the PCB for support. I have also issued the Women’s Wing with a proper letter regarding the matter.’

Miandad was giving his reaction to Manager Ayesha Ashar’s clueless observations regarding the details of the women’s domestic season in the absence of the Women’s Wing Chairperson Shireen Javed, who is out of the country at the moment.

‘You have to take all the provinces into account when planning a domestic season. Otherwise, it is just not a national event. But these women are sitting there in Lahore, not even aware of how many girls in Quetta, Karachi, Hyderabad, Peshawar or any of the other cities want to play cricket? What is the use of not budging from your station and then calling a handful of girls to hold a closed tournament just for the sake of holding a domestic tournament and not doing anything to bring up women’s cricket here?’ he asked.

Meanwhile, giving her input on how to hold domestic cricket tournaments in the country, the founder of the Pakistan Women’s Cricket Control Association (PWCCA) Shaiza Khan said: ‘Speaking from my own experience, you need at least two months to plan ahead of a tournament. You need to hold nation-wide trials. If there are clubs participating, you need to check if they are registered as a proper club as each needs to have at least 16 members along with a pitch and ground in order to get registered,’ she said.

‘Then you have to balance the teams accordingly as you cannot have two teams from Balochistan and six from Sindh. That requires holding separate tournaments within the regions first. Also you have to decide, after knowing how many teams are featuring in a competition, whether you are going to have a round robin competition or groups or pools. There are the coaches and team managements to be looked into, too. You also have to allot grounds. There are the draws to be held, clothes and equipment to be readied, accommodation and travel expenses to be looked into, not to mention the budget.’

Backing Shaiza on the point, Miandad said: ‘If you cannot hold proper nation-wide trials, you don’t have a proper Pakistan team later. You will then only have the rich girls who can spend their own money on travel and to buy equipment as well as find coaches to train here, which will be very unfortunate. How do you expect to patronize women’s cricket here without a proper system at the provincial level.’

While giving his reaction to the tussle between the PCB and the Pakistan Women’s Cricket Control Association (PWCCA) – the pioneers of women’s cricket in Pakistan – that has taken the shape of a legal battle in the Lahore High Court, he said: ‘Those girls put in a lot of hard work in order to promote women’s cricket in Pakistan. They were sincere. They even generated the money themselves and weren’t dependant on the board for funds.

‘And what a commendable job they did without any monetary support from either the PCB or the Government of Pakistan. I will say it again and again. You can only help women’s cricket here by having an independent board with its own patron-in-chief, separate associations in each province, etc. Shireen Javed should generate her own funds as it is after all the board chairperson’s job to find the funding in order to run the affairs of the board,’ said Miandad.

But when reminded that Shireen Javed was not in favour of running an independent board, the former cricketer said: ‘Well, she should then ask the PCB to shut down the Women’s Wing as she jolly well cannot run it like she is doing now. We can then say goodbye to women’s cricket in Pakistan!’